High current MOSFET gate drivers from Intersil said to provide industry’s best switching efficiency

The new drivers have increased gate drive currents (4A source and sink gate drive currents for UGATE and 4A source with 6A sink on LGATE) to reduce gate voltage rise and fall times. This minimises switching losses and improves efficiency, especially in high current applications in which power MOSFETs are placed in parallel per phase.

The ISL6615 and ISL6615A also support both 9.6V and 12V input rails. In addition, designers can choose versions of the device that support 3.3 PWM signals (ISL6615) or 5V PWM signals (ISL6615A). Each device has a wide input voltage operating range of 5V to 12V, and each is pin-for-pin compatible with Intersil’s previous generation ISL6594D.

With multiple protection features such as bootstrap capacitor overcharging prevention, a tri-state PWM input for safe output stage shutdown, pre-POR over-voltage protection and VCC under-voltage protection, the ISL6615 and ISL6615A help protect the system.

This attention to system safety, combined with improved flexibility and greater gate drive efficiency, allows designers to remain consistent in board design, while creating improvements and avoiding the use of expensive, low RDS(ON) MOSFETS.

The ISL6615/15A are available now in 8-lead SOIC packages.